Park Walker - Hanging Gardens - Mexican Roots

Park Walker - Hanging Gardens - Mexican Roots (2022 0820)

Presented in collaboration with the Embassy of Mexico, Hanging Gardens – Mexican Roots showcases vibrant floral interpretations and icons of ancient Mexican civilisations, including a 4.5m-tall reproduction of the iconic Chichén Itzá pyramid of the Mayans, the Aztec double-headed serpent, food and plants endemic to Mexico such as corns, chillies and tomatoes; and medallions with mosaic designs composed of seeds, beans and pulses.

Look forward to a floral extravaganza headlined by showy blooms like orchids, dahlias and bromeliads, decked in a plethora of buoyant colours that call to mind the lively hues often associated with Mexico.

 

Heirloom Varieties of Corn

Spot these Blooms!

Orchids/Cosmos/Dahlia/Marigold/Zinnia/Bromeliads

Mexican Folk Art

Seed Mosaics - Seed mosaics are a traditional Mexican art form often seen during harvest festivals and ceremonies. Seeds, beans or pulses of various sizes and colours are used to create intricate images on streets and pavements. 

Floral Arch - The elaborate floral arch is often erected at the entrances of Mexican towns, churches and even weddings. A festive floral arch measuring 8m across and 5m in height sits at the entrance of Flower Dome. This art work of Third-Generation artisan Mario Arturo Aguilar Gutierrez and his two assistant travel to Singapore from the town of Iztacalco in Mexico City.

Icons of Mexico’s Ancient Civilisations

Chac Mool

Chac Mool is a distinct form of a Mesoamerican statue of a reclining figure, often on a rectangular base. Its head faces 90 degrees to the left or right from the front, its body is supported with bent knees and elbows, and its arm is holding on to a bowl at the torso or belly. The bowl serves as a vessel for sacrificial offerings ranging from tamales and tortillas to tobacco, flowers and colourful feathers. Several Chac Mool were found in different excavations in and around Mexico City and important archaeological sites at Tula and Chichén Itzá.

Chichén Itzá

Located in the eastern part of the Yucatán state in Mexico, the city of Chichén Itzá boasts a wealth of dense architecture, reminiscent of its reputation as a significant regional capital in the North Maya Lowlands during the Late Classic Period (c. AD 600 – AD 900) to the Terminal Classic Period (c. AD 800 – AD 900).

Double-headed Serpent

The Maquizcoatl, more popularly known as the double-headed serpent, is of great mystical significance in ancient Mexico’s history. No zoological specimens of this creature have ever been recorded.  In Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, coatl means both “serpent” and “twin”. Serpents are extensively featured in all Aztec art - it serves as an important symbol as the shedding of the serpent’s skin represents regeneration, new life and fertility.

For the 18m-long double-headed serpent in the Hanging Gardens - Mexican Roots floral display, 3,000 tillandsias have been carefully hand-tied to the frame of the serpent’s body. These epiphytic air plants native to Southwestern USA, Mexico and South America come in various shapes and sizes and are well-liked for their versatile nature, as they are also used as ornamental houseplants.

Olmec Head

The Olmecs’ artwork is considered the most striking in ancient America. The widely recognised Olmec heads are massive stone monuments that can be as tall as 3m, have a circumference of 4.5m and weigh up to 8 tonnes (8,000kg). Seventeen heads have been discovered in two of the most vital centres of Olmec civilisation, the archeological sites of San Lorenzo and La Venta. The colossal head is known to be carved out of a single basalt boulder and hand sculpted using stones, while reeds and wet sand are used to achieve true-to-life and expressive facial details.

Quetzalcóatl

Quetzalcóatl is one of the most significant gods in ancient Mesoamerica, commonly present among several Mesoamerican civilisations. Its name is made up of a combination of two Nahuatl words – quetzal, meaning emerald plumed bird, and coatl, meaning serpent.

The feathered serpent of early Teotihuacán, symbolising a deity of water, fertility and agriculture, became intertwined and identified later with Quetzalcóatl, taking on the beliefs of the civilisations of Xochicalco, Tajín, Cholula, the Mayan, Toltecs and Aztecs. Quetzalcóatl was a cultural hero, a prophet, the creator of life and humankind, a wizard, the god that gave corn to people. For the Aztecs, the revered creator god is also known to bring winds and rain, which is essential for agriculture.

Tula Giants

Visible on the horizon of the ancient city of Tula, Hidalgo in present-day Mexico, these large, giant statues stand atop the Temple of Tlahuizcalpantecuhtli, also known as the Temple of the Morning Star or House of the Morning Star. 

Weighing several tonnes each and standing over 4.6m tall, these stone-carved statues provide valuable insight into the Toltec civilisation. Snakeskin and feathers adorn the headdresses, while butterfly-shaped breastplates, weapons and shields on the backs make up the attires carved into the statues. Modern archaeologists surmise that the statues were warriors that belong to Quetzalcóatl, the Aztec feathered serpent god, due to the feather and snakeskin decor and the butterfly breastplates.

While archaeologists are still uncertain about the exact purpose of the statues within the Mesoamerican context, they have deduced that the statues likely supported a roof at the top of the temple, like pillars or columns.

Monarch Butterflies

The Monarch Butterflies is one of the most recongnisable and well studies butterflies on the planet. Its orange wings are laced with black lines and boarderd with white dots. Famous for their sesonal migration, millions migrate from the United States and Canada south to California and Mexico for the winter

De La Cruz-Badiano Codex

The Codex Badianus is considered to be the oldest medical text writtren in America, It showing the work of the indifenous people inmedical matter, all, based on the observation an use of natural elements